1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air bag device for pedestrian provided with an air bag which is inflated with an inflating gas supplied, in operation, thereby to cover a front face side of a front pillar.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there has been such an air bag device for pedestrian that a folded air bag is contained below a back edge of a hood panel, and in operation, an inflating gas is supplied to the air bag thereby to push up the back edge of the hood panel, and at the same time, the air bag is moved upward from an under side of the back edge of the hood panel to be arranged at a front face side of the front pillar (Reference should be made to JP-A-2000-264146, for example).
However, in the conventional air bag device for pedestrian, the air bag itself which is being inflated pushes up the back edge side of the hood panel to create an opening for protruding the air bag between the back edge of the hood panel and a cowl below the hood panel. Generally, this hood panel has a double sheet structure including an outer panel formed of sheet metal which is thin and easily flexed, and an inner panel having higher rigidity than the outer panel. Further, the hood panel is provided with a hinge part for opening and closing the hood panel at the back edge side thereof. The air bag which is being inflated plastically deforms the hinge part itself or the inner panel surrounding the hinge part, thereby to push up the back edge of the hood panel. However, the hinge part and its surroundings have high rigidity so that the hood panel can be stably opened and closed. For this reason, it is necessary to increase an inner pressure of the air bag for enabling an area in vicinity of the hinge part to be deformed by the air bag, and so, it is necessary to use an inflator of high output, as the inflator for supplying the inflating gas to the air bag, which has incurred an increase in weight and in size of the air bag device, including a structure for rigidly holding the inflator, and so on.